Are we still a Christian country?

THE FORMER Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, has entered the 'are we still a Christian country?' debate which was started by David Cameron who believed our country was, and suggested a more evangelical approach by the Anglican Church would keep it so.

            

            The response came in the form of a correspondence to the Daily Telegraph, signed by an assortment 50 liberalarti, including academics, scientists, media folk, authors and luvvies, and at least one GP; all declaiming the opposite view to the prime ministers.

            

            Now the former 'Christian lite' archbishop has come out and announced that 'We are living in a post Christian Britain…' Well we are not quite there yet as a poll in today's Sunday Telegraph suggests. Fifty-six per cent of respondents believe we are  a Christian nation. The figure rises to 60 per cent among men, and 73 per cent among the over 65s

            

            More disturbingly the poll found that 48 per cent of respondents believed Christianity received less protection from the state than other faiths; and the figure rose 62 per cent among non-practising Christians.

            

             Lord Williams of Oystermouth, as he is now referred as, is partly to blame for the gradual demise of his faith. His liberal approach which even extended to the proposition that sharia law had a place within English law must have been the final straw for many worshipping Anglicans who came to see Rome as the only beacon that kept their faith alive and remained true to the Gospels.

            

             It has been a standing joke since the late 1950s' onset of liberalism in the Anglican church, that you do not have to believe in God to be a vicar or Bishop in the Church of England - but it is no longer a joke, but a reality. One of the reasons we are becoming a none Christian nation is because the Anglican church has become a none Christian Church; adapting itself to the liberal secularist agenda such as women priest, to be followed by women bishops: and embarrassed by such issues as gay marriage which the liberal church hierarchy has no objection to - but as the current Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has noted; it is beyond his power to resolve.

            

             The resolution of the gay marriage issue in the Anglican church is almost impossible. This is another reason why this country's status as a Christian country is withering on the vine. In Africa however, it is not. In Africa the Anglican community is as steadfast as ever; still believing, as Anglicans in this country once did, in the un-liberalised teachings of the Gospel.

           

              In Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, and South Africa. The Anglican community takes the biblical testimony, not unpicked by the Anglican liberals in the UK, as the main source of their faith; as once did, a few decades ago, the Church of England.

CHRISTIANITY in the Anglican Church is being destroyed from within not from without. As the Telegraph poll suggests, Christianity still flourishes in one form or another. That the fall in the numbers in congregations should be the benchmark of decline according to the signatories of the Telegraph correspondence, is irrelevant.

            

             What matters is that so many people still see this as a Christian country and themselves as Christians despite the weakness of the Anglican hierarchy. If I believed in God, I would avoid the modern Anglican Church at all costs. But I would still pray; and this is the test. Prayer is the true test of faith. Not the Sunday appearances in church. It is when the life of a loved one is imperilled, either through illness or war; that many a none believer or lapsed Christian has turned to God. When a loved one lies in a coma for months on end, and the authority of the medical profession left unable to determine when or if the patient would awake. Then prayer seems like the best bet - even, maybe, for some of those signatories.

            

             The Anglican Church may die in the UK, but it will have been brought about through its own folly. Nevertheless it will continue to flourish on the African continent. Lord Rowan Williams' claim that this country is a post-Christian one is a misnomer; in the sense that his view of Christianity revolves only around the Anglican Church in the UK.

            

             Catholicism, on the other hand, as well as the dozens of Protestant communions, that exist in this country and around the world suggests (they are particularly strong in America) is that Christianity is flourishing globally. But it's the UK Anglican variation that may be in decline.

           

             Lord Williams, whilst archbishop of Canterbury has never defended the biblical faith but only tried to accommodate secularism with it; as he tried to do with Islam and sharia law. He, more than any single individual, has helped bring about what he refers to as the 'post-Christian age' in the UK.

            

             Having a high intelligent quota as Lord Williams undoubtedly does: does not immunise him against stupidity. He is a scholar of Dostoevsky, who, along with Dickens, represent the two major authors of the 19^th century. But he must know Dostoevsky would never have tolerated what he would have regarded as the apostate views of Christianity, represented by the modern Anglican Church. What would today be regarded as bigotry was part of the literal faith of the Bible when Dostoevsky was alive.

            

             I truly believe that Lord Williams faces comparison with Prince Mushkin, the naive simpleton created by Dostoevsky, and the anti-hero of his novel - The Idiot. Mushkin represents modern liberal degeneracy, as does the noble Lord. Dostoevsky was a conservative; which meant a traditionalist. He created Mushkin as a well meaning simpleton who managed to mesmerise.

            

             Lord Williams has returned to academia, where he should have stayed. For he did little good entering the limelight of the public stage as Archbishop of Canterbury. All he managed to do was to further weaken his church, and allow the advancement of the moral-nihilism that is secularism.